Definitive safeguard measures on imports on steel

Definitive safeguard measures on imports on steel

European Commission set to adopt definitive safeguard measures on imports on steel

On 16 January, the European Commission received the support from Member States to its plan to impose definitive safeguard measures on imports of steel. These measures are intended to shield European steel producers following the trade diversion of steel into the EU market from other producers around the world as a result of the unilateral US measures restricting imports of steel to the American market. The definitive measures aim to preserve traditional trade flows. The safeguard measures target a well-defined list of steel products, regardless of their origin and strike a balance between the interest of European steel producers and users. The plan was notified to the WTO and made publicly available on the 4 January. The Commission will now finalise the procedure, so that the definitive measures can enter into force in the beginning of February 2019 and thereby replace the provisional safeguard measures in place since July 2018 (until 4 February 2019). The new measures can remain in place until July 2021.